The DNA of information design for charts and diagrams

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-292
Author(s):  
Clive Richards ◽  
Yuri Engelhardt
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Information Design ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Venn Diagrams ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Extensive Range ◽  
Tree Diagram ◽  
Flow Charts ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Design Options

Abstract A comprehensive framework is presented for analyzing and specifying an extensive range of visualizations, such as statistical charts, maps, family trees, Venn diagrams, flow charts, texts using indenting, technical drawings and scientific illustrations. This paper describes how the fundamental ‘DNA’ building blocks of visual encoding and composition can be combined into ‘visualization patterns’ that specify these and other types of visualizations. We offer different ways of specifying each visualization pattern, including through a DNA tree diagram and through a rigorously systematic natural language sentence. Using this framework, a design tool is proposed for exploring visualization design options.

Optimum Range Thermal Design With Computational Fluid Dynamics

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prabhat Tekriwal
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Consumer Preference ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Thermal Design ◽  
Good Design ◽  
Optimum Range ◽  
Consumer Safety ◽  
Temperature Requirements ◽  
Design Options

A typical cooking range design requires that UL temperature requirements be met on outside surfaces for consumer safety. Another important consumer preference is that the range oven cavity be large in capacity so that it provides more cooking flexibility to consumers. These two requirements are in conflict with each other from design standpoint. CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) has proven to be a good design tool in balancing these opposing requirements and providing a optimum design without having to experiment with several design options and prototyping. The width of the air-wash that is used to cool the cooking range door through natural convection has been optimized with the aid of computational fluid dynamics. Increasing the air-wash width helps reduce the door surface temperature up to certain point, beyond which no gains in temperature reduction are realized.

A guided approach to conceptual design in the information design process

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Pontis
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Information Design ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Subject Areas

Conceptual design is often overlooked and underestimated by information designers who tend to be more focused on implementation and concerned with aesthetic qualities. Consequently, there is a lack of thorough thinking and understanding during the conceptual part of the design process that results in a recurrent development of unintelligible diagrams in information design practice. Bringing awareness to conceptual design can help designers realize its function and importance for the development of effective diagrams. To address this situation, this paper proposes the adoption in professional practice of a conceptual design tool with a guided approach, e.g., MapCI Cards. Working with this approach may aid information designers in the preparation of diagrams by guiding conceptual design tasks: understanding the diagram purpose and intended-audience, analyzing and simplifying information sources, identifying subject areas and information types, and defining their organization into a hierarchical structure. We describe this type of approach and discuss its usefulness for information designers, explaining how it could support their conceptual design decision-making. Then, we present scenarios in which working with the approach could be beneficial, followed by recommendations to use this approach in professional practice.

scholarly journals Beyond the COVID-19 Crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (198) ◽  
Author(s):  
Delphine Prady ◽  
Herve Tourpe ◽  
Sonja Davidovic ◽  
Soheib Nunhuck
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Mobile Platforms ◽  
Mobile Money ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

During the 2020 pandemic, the majority of countries have provided income support to households at an unprecedented speed and scale. Social distancing measures and the large penetration of mobile phones in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) have encouraged government-to-person (G2P) transfers through mobile platforms. This paper presents a comprehensive framework for sustainable money solutions in support of social assistance. The framework consists of eight building blocks that may help policymakers i) take stock and assess emergency fixes taken to scale up mobile money in a crisis context and ii) develop sustainable long-term solutions for mobile G2P transfers.

scholarly journals Creation of a Framework of Design Tool Characteristics to Support Evaluation and Selection of Visualisation Tools

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1115-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenwen Zhang ◽  
Charlie Ranscombe ◽  
David Radcliffe ◽  
Simon Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Tool Development ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Support Evaluation ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractIn Industrial Design, new design visualisation tools are emerging offering significant benefits to the designers. However, studies show alongside some benefits, new tools can also inhibit designers' creativity or cause time inefficiency if used in the wrong context. Thus, understanding which tools to use and when during the design process is increasingly necessary to ensure the best use of resources in design practice. Existing research on understanding the performance of design tools and the resulting frameworks for comparing tools are either specific to certain tools or highly generalised making evaluation across different design tools challenging. As such, this paper reports the creation of a more comprehensive framework of design tool characteristics to facilitate a better understanding of design tools and their uses. Demonstration of application of the framework is also given in the form of a case study on the use of Digital Sketching and its comparable tools with four practising designers. In conclusion, we show how the Design Tool Characteristics (DTCs) framework is an effective way to understand design tools, with further implications for design tool development.

Use of Athena Vortex Lattice for Preliminary Hydrofoil Design

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katelynne R. Burrell ◽  
Joshua P. Sykes ◽  
Timothy B. Dewhurst ◽  
Zhaohui Qin
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Vortex Lattice ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Preliminary Design ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lifting Surfaces ◽  
Lift And Drag ◽  
Design Options ◽  
Short Time

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the extent to which the Athena Vortex Lattice program (AVL) is useful in the design of a hydrofoil system for a solar boat. Cedarville University has won the Solar Splash Collegiate World Championship of Solar Boating 8 times in the past 12 years, and was the top university in the Top Class of the 2012 DONG Energy Solar Challenge in the Netherlands. The three main events of the Solar Splash Competition are the high-speed Slalom and Sprint events, and the longer Endurance event. In the past Cedarville has attempted to design and use hydrofoils for the Endurance event without success. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis for a hydrofoil system was conducted by Neola Putnam (2013 team member) using ANSYS’s CFD software, Fluent. Putnam worked with single phase flow modeling 3D hydrofoils. Fluent analysis can be a long and complicated process requiring hours of meshing followed by hours of CPU time for analysis. AVL, as an alternative, is a less complicated program allowing for simple generation of a geometry file. This program also takes a comparatively short time to analyze the imported geometry file. Thus, if AVL reliably predicts lift and drag, it could be used as a preliminary design tool to quickly assess various design options. AVL is a program which models lifting surfaces as vortex lattice sheets to determine the flight characteristics of the surface. The program is written in Fortran and is an inviscid solver. The AVL3.30 User Primer is a reference guide on how to use the program and was used extensively by the authors of this paper when learning to use AVL. Cedarville University also partnered with the company Sea Land Aire Technologies Inc.in Jackson Michigan for aid in using AVL as a design tool. The tool was recommended to Cedarville University by Sea Land Aire as a product which might be of interest to our team in the design of a hydrofoil system. AVL is potentially beneficial to the Cedarville University Solar Boat team in the preliminary design phase of a hydrofoil system. The content of this paper demonstrates the correlation between results from AVL and Fluent analysis for a 2D NACA 4412 foil. Secondly, the paper demonstrates comparable results from AVL for 3Danalysiswith published experimental results. The following sections discuss the use of AVL as a preliminary design tool, and the overall recommendation of the authors as to further use of AVL by Cedarville University in the design of a hydrofoil system.

Validation of Predictive Workload Component of the Multimodal Information Design Support (Mids) System

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 1162-1166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly S. Hale ◽  
Leah M. Reeves ◽  
Par Axelsson ◽  
Kay M. Stanney
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Situation Awareness ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Information Design ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design Support ◽  
Subjective Report ◽  
Evaluation Of Performance ◽  
Multimodal Information ◽  
Subjective Reports

Operators in military C4ISR environments are required to rapidly assess and respond to critical events accurately while monitoring ongoing operations. In order to assist in designing complex display systems to support C4ISR operators, it is critical to understand when and why information displayed exceeds human capacity. Common metrics for evaluating operator overload are subjective report, which rely on self-reporting techniques (e.g., NASA/TLX, SART). A new design tool, the Multimodal Information Design Support (MIDS) system, predicts times of operator overload and offers multimodal design guidelines to streamline cognitive processing, thus alleviating times of operator workload and optimizing situation awareness. This paper empirically validates MIDS” predictive power in determining situations which may cause operator overload by comparing MIDS output to subjective reports of workload and SA during C4ISR operations. Future studies will validate MIDS” design capabilities through redesign and evaluation of performance, workload and SA on the optimized C4ISR task environment.

scholarly journals TMI: INFORMATION RHETORIC TYPES IN DIGITAL POLITICAL INFOGRAPHICS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eedan Amit-Danhi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Linear Framework ◽  
Transitional Mode

Visualizations are reliant on visual encoding, in which attributes of data are depicted through graphic symbols (Cairo, 2019). As such, they are placed as a transitional mode between data and information in the linear framework of the "wisdom hierarchy" (DIKW). In the digital information environment, both the linear learning process and the distinction between data and information merit a re-evaluation. This paper seeks to create a better understanding of information's role in digital culture, by venturing to re-examine its attributes. Relying on a sample of all visualizations posted by the top four candidates of the 2016 US elections (n=252), I applied qualitative grounded analysis informed by theory: First, I constructed a conceptual model for the attributes of information, which relies on three layers – (1) foundation (substantiation/sources); (2) building blocks (data components); (3) data-structures (analysis). Second, following a classification of all units according to this model, I defined types of visualization rhetoric that each rely on specific formulations of information attributes (foundation, building blocks and structure) to make a political argument. Finally, I identify two modes of visual information-rhetoric in elections: unveiling and imagining. The model and categories defined in this study demonstrate how the rhetorical agility required for modern political campaigning seems to muddle the axiomatic distinctions of data and information and create new, unpredictable hybrid information and rhetorical types, some of which rely heavily on estimations and fantasy, rather than empirical observation and evidence.

Organising and utilizing document design options

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 256-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Information Design ◽  
Discussion Paper ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Good Design ◽  
Document Design ◽  
Design Procedures ◽  
Cost Constraints ◽  
Closing The Gap ◽  
Design Options

In this discussion paper, the author concentrates on the problems of modeling the design process as a means of closing the gap between research and practice in information design. He proposes a new document design model but notes that competing objectives, in particular cost constraints, may prevent the implementation of good design procedures in practice.

Inhibitors of Physicians' Use of Mandatory Hospital Information Systems (HIS)

2020 ◽  
pp. 1720-1737
Author(s):  
Heiko Gewald ◽  
Corinna Gewald
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Hospital Information Systems ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
The Road ◽  
Information Systems Research ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Effective Use

Physicians' use of information systems continues to be a highly relevant area of information systems research. Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between hospital physicians and hospital information systems (HIS), a comprehensive framework for assessing the factors which inhibit the use of HIS has yet to be developed. To advance these efforts, this exploratory research takes a qualitative approach to investigate HIS use inhibitors based on interviews with 48 informants and observations from over 40 hours of workplace shadowing in two German hospitals. The findings show that focusing solely on the user does not lead to successful system deployment in hospitals. Rather, the road to success needs to take a combined approach focusing on the user, the process and the system. If these three building blocks are well aligned, correspond with the organizational context and are supported by strong leadership, medical personnel are much more satisfied with the HIS, which results in more effective use.

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